How to teach students about 9/11: Q&A with Janice Yates of East Grand Rapids

Janice Yates has taught government and economics at East Grand Rapids High School for 11 years, and coaches the school’s We the People team, which competes in events based around the U.S. Constitution and congress. She was working on the morning of Sept. 11, 2001 and recalled what transpired in her classrooms that day and beyond.

Q: What was it like in the classroom on Sept. 11, 2001?

A: Our principal, Pat Cwayna, came on the intercom and said that planes had crashed into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, and that we should turn on the televisions.

High school students can be rambunctious, and I remember that they just sat and watched, silently, for the longest time. It was one of the most memorable things in my life.

The images on the television were coming in raw, and the cameras would pickup images of people jumping out of the windows. I was so emotionally distraught that I had to turn off the TV, not for the kids, but for me. I explained to the kids that I needed to wait until there was a chance for some of the things we were seeing to be filtered, and we talked for a while. It was just devastating.

The classes changed, and we’d talk. The economics class plays a stock market game, and they were stunned that the markets closed. They knew it must be an important event when the markets closed for several days.

Over time we would talk about the impact on the economy. There was some joking when President Bush spoke and said we should all go to the movies and do the kinds of things we normally do, but I helped the kids understand what he was saying. We didn’t want to allow these people to destroy our economy, and we should not be afraid to live our lives.

Q: The students in your classes today were 6, 7 or 8 years old when the attacks occurred. Do they understand the impact and the importance of the events that day?

A: I think they do. I’m too young to remember what it was like when Pearl Harbor was attacked, but I can understand what must have been the emotion at the time. This was a Pearl Harbor moment.

But do they have that raw emotion that everyone felt that day? I think that’s started to fade. I don’t think too many parents of children that age allowed them to watch everything that day. So it’s started to fade a little because I think it’s difficult for them to grasp the impact. They know it was an event that will change the country forever, but they don’t remember what that day was like.

Q: Is it ancient history for them?

A: Every year we take the We the People team to Washington, D.C. and we go to the Newseum. There’s a video display that students watch, and one year they all came away sobbing. I’ll never forget it. Girls, guys — it didn’t matter. They were sobbing, saying things like, “I remember it, but, oh my gosh, I didn’t know how brutal it was.”

The reaction is pretty similar every year we do. It’s like the holocaust museum. It’s important to go and understand these events.